A year already
Algol
Hamish Tait, Robin Hastie & Jim Hepburn
Sun 7 Sep 2008 10:53
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It really is hard to believe just how
quickly the first year has passed and we're both anxious that the remaining time
will not be enough for all we want to do. Anne's four schools will need a lot of
support to procede with their development plans, but VSO have moved the goal
posts and have new ideas they want to pursue. I (Hamish) can't pretend to
comprehend it, but Anne's "boss" returned from a meeting in the UK brim full
of jargon and apparently meaningless acronyms. Personally, I think VSO is
in danger of losing the plot! Here in the bush the people need simple practical
help, not "technobabble" and smart but impractical ideas of the developed
world.
Well, now that I've got that off my
chest, back to life in Zidim. I've made a first attempt at "telemedicine".
We had a child arrive with multiple bony lumps and quite abnormal x-ray
pictures. I thought this had to be some sort of genetic problem but had no idea
what. I was able to email photos of the x-rays to Jonathan Nixon (former partner
in the St Andrews practice) and to Anne Poppelaars in Holland. I got the answer
back from Jonathan within 2 hours and confirmed by Anne the following day. Both
had sought help from expert colleagues at home. I now know what the diagnosis is
and have an idea of the management but so far the patient has not come
back!
One patient who did come back is the baby
with heart failure and this time he didn't wee on my trousers! Maybe that was
just because he'd run out of his supply of water pills!
Talking of water, the rainy season is
still not over but there's still not been enough to ensure a good crop of cotton
and (more important from my personal viewpoint!) peanuts. On Thursday we had
what I thought was a very heavy shower even though it only lasted 15 minutes or
so. Francois said it was only a few droplets, but I'll let you judge for
yourselves from the attached photo of the flood in the hospital grounds.
Admittedly it had all gone by half an hour later.
Shona leaves tomorrow to start the retrun
journey. She & Andy will have a few days in Yaoundé before flying back to
Scotland on Thursday. We will miss her company but Heather arrives on 20th.
Unfortunately she only has 2 weeks with us. We thought it would be easier for
her to fly to Ndjamena in Chad which is only about 200Km away. Seemed like a
good idea since the political unrest has calmed down (the rebels can't move
around freely during the rainy season!) but what problems! Getting a visa to
enter Chad was a nightmare and eventually she had to fly to Paris to go the the
embassy there for it. We're waiting for visas here so we can go to the airport
to pick her up. Our passports and applications were sent to the Embassy here in
Cameroon three weeks ago. Apparently the Ambassador's on holiday and no one else
can sign the visas! We're told they'll be here in time for the 20th but who
knows!
Yesterday in Maroua there was quite heavy
rain again. We noticed a number of pedestrians with brollies hailing motos. Once
on the pillion, the brolly stays up and is held over the head of the driver as
well. Very thoughtful, but how the driver can see where he's was going
defeats us!
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